Hahahaha. Today I went out in 6 degree F weather, with no wind, and the sun was beginning to peak thru the puffy clouds. I had a hard time starting, my breath was so cold in my lungs at first. Then I got my warm breath going inside my hoodie (drawstring tight), mock turtleneck from my Nike running top up to my nose, and my knit hat down to my eyebrows. Once I was warmed up, I continued to do my usual 5 mile trail jog. Only this was snow jogging. I found the powder stuff to be easier for my feet to stay balanced, but there was a weight to push it out of the way. If I went on the path where others had gone, the feet kept falling into the holes made by the other people's footprints, and they were iced hard - so it was painful at times with the heel going up and the toes going not straight down, but on a ridge of some kind of arc. Weird balancing to stay upright and run normally. Not slipping on slippery ice conditions, but just like a forest floor with roots all over. Still, I did it. When I took off my wind shell when I got back, it was packed with the most amount of snow/ice crystals from the frozen perspiration along the hoodie inside that I have yet seen to date.

Hahahaha. My perspective keeps changing. I seem to be able to do things that I would otherwise think that I would NOT want, or thought that I could NOT, do.

I seem to be in a go for it mood. I pushed my Legs on the Leg Press back up to my last winter's weight of 11 45lbs plates on each side of the press plate (22 total X 45lbs = 990lbs + 35 for the bar and pressing plate - so my I made it to the over 1000lbs club). I was able to push it up - to me that is the hardest part for my knees - and then on the 4th rep I let my left knee buckle just a touch to the inside and I could feel it starting to injure my knee ligament. I immediately did not try to hold the weight, but let it slam down on the safety knob. Smart. I was able to continue on to do the Leg curls/Leg extensions/Abductor and Adductor exercises with increases in weight or reps than before. More focus on doing the execution of the exercise - not just a get it up there anyway possible. A very real problem when you are in a Push it to the Edge mood lately.

Tonight was Back, and I did my 180lbs for the wide bar Lat pulldown, for not 10 reps like last time, but 15 reps (with the last 3 kind of short on the ROM). So I went for it - I put 200lbs on it. Being only 155lbs, it was hard to get the weight down and sit in the seat - knees slam down under the padded knee holder, but my arms were being ripped off as the weight was not coming down with me. I used my biceps to bring the bar down alittle bit before I attempted to jam my knees back under the padded knee holder on my second try. I laughed out loud as I tried to bring the weight down, and I got only 4 reps of maybe 6 inch range of motion. Well, I tried. And now about 3 hours later, my little lats under my armpit are sore already. Sleep and digesting the oatmeal, protein powder, and 1/3 pint of Coconut Milk icecream (little tiny spoonfuls floating and melting in the oatmeal - burst of vanilla creamy oatmeal and then a pop of cold sweetness - yum! my new bulking meal after working out really hard - instead of a boring shake). Finally I am sleepy - before 1 AM! (Working out at night, and then that sweet treat afterwards seems to keep me awake for hours).

Well it is dinner time, and I have been knocked off my feet for most of the day. Do not know if my body is not recovering fast enough with the new PBs I have been doing for months now (increasing the weights every time I lift, or increasing the reps on the heaviest weight set) or I have caught something by going to the cinema theater on Sunday to see the Hobbit/Smaug and walked around the mall full of people. Sigh. I did do an hour on the elliptical for 10K, but only on level 3 (went to level 4 for 1/2 hour and then it was too much - ahhh, my first clue that I should have knew that something was going on in my body). Biceps are on the agenda for tonight . . . . to go or not to go. . . well, first it is dinner. Then I have 2 hours to digest and see if I push myself (tomorrow is Delts and just a walk for morning cardio as it will be Legs the next day, and no cardio on Leg day).

It has been awhile since I posted. Lets see. I am in apartment on campus, and classes have already begun. I have walked to the gym (35 minutes as my warm-up and as my cool-down on the way back). The gym is smaller, and I miss my Hammer Strength Chest Presses and a Lying Leg curl machine, but they have a Smith Machine, all the Lifetime fitness machine (except the shoulder press) and weird incline benches. An interesting Leg Press too, but I have not tried that out yet (did Power Squats on the Smith Press this week instead). There is hardly any people there, so I usually have the freedom to do whatever I want without waiting for a weight, bench, or machine.With all this walking to class, and walking to the gym, I seem to be losing my bodyfat finally - that and the poor college student diet. Actually I am pretty well off (I still have my husband's credit card, though he declined to sell everything and move here with me - till I succeed at getting a phD and a job somewhere where it is warmer than here (Indiana) or Michigan), but I opted not to take the car (did not want to hassle with parking, fees, and my husband having to buy another car for himself), but I have to walk to the grocery store. A market is over by the gym, and takes another 10 minutes from the gym to get there, so a total of 45 minutes to get back to campus and my apt. Yesterday I had to carry a toilet paper package of 12 in my arms (because all the food was in my back pack). Glad that I am so old that vanity of carrying toilet paper on busy city streets and across campus doesn't bother me. . it actually makes me giggle!So I will have new posts about working out as a VeganBeast, going to school (student), and trying to get ripped with my diet as a vegan.Tonight's dinner will be 1/2 bag left of beansprouts, sugar snap pea pods, carrots, tofu, and brown sweet rice. Just had a protein shake made with warm water, and I ran out of oatmeal, but I did have Cascadian Farm Organic Granola on the counter, so I ate one cup of that with a glass of water (need the extra sugar calories since I just got done working out and walked all the way back in the cold!). Now it is time for a nap, and then I get to wake up and study!

Hello everyone. Decided to post again. I am feeling isolated again as a vegan, and wanted to just post so I can look back on this later and remember.

I am off to do my morning jog. It is another cold 19 degree F (which is what it is usually - though my coldest was 9 degrees without factoring in the windchill). I was jogging the Cultural trail thru the town of Indianapolis during most of the winter because it was the only thing the city kept the snow plowed and salted to keep the ice down. It is a casual 7 mile trek, that I could do in an hour or less. Now that the snow is gone, but the cold is still here, I have found a wilderness sidewalk/path wonderland called the White River Greenway. I took off one day and went for an hour into it, and turned around at the West 30th street, so that is about 10 miles round trip jog. Then yesterday it was warm and I kept going to the overpass that had a mural of catfish on the walls beneath the overpass, and passed a marker that said it was 15 miles (the path is actually for the cyclists of Indy - there are bikes everywhere - so economical and green!). I think I can do my marathon training on this path. So cool! It also has a dam with a short waterfall.

I am still doing my workouts also. I have to walk 30 minutes into town to get to the gym that I still have a membership at (thank goodness for franchises! just switched it over to this one in Indiana) which is my warmup. It is cool to experience living in a city. As a country girl it is cool to jog around the countryside in the morning, and then observe the city during the late afternoon (especially Indy as they have a huge convention center in the middle of town and I get to see weird things - like this weekend must have been a SuperHeroes convention. I saw Dad's with Superman outfits on, and kids with Spiderman outfits on. And Mom's that had Batman tulle tutu/skirts on! So different and cool! and it was a warm day (55 degrees F) so they were all out in the city park running around playing out flying, posing for the camera (the kids were so adorable!), and picnicking. My heart was filled with humanity seeing all of this.

OK, off I go into the cold weather - the bright side is that at least the snow and ice are gone. I don't have to worry about slipping or falling and breaking something. Also, I thought this morning, not bad for a 50 year old! I am doing a good job keeping this vessel healthy and it is serving me well. May I never take it for granted, and know how precious it is in this life of mine.

Today was an easy 10+ mile jog this morning. I kept going (as long as my FailMix music was playing - http://www.mixcloud.com/YUM/) to the end of the White River Greenway at West 38th street this time. Was about 2 hours of jogging. Yeah, my arse is alittle sore tonight (the quads are their usual soreness). I still ate and took a 20 minute nap this noon, and then headed out to the town of Indy to go to the gym (it is a casual walk of 35 minutes to get there). Worked out my Triceps, and did not go heavy heavy today. I went to where I could do 8 reps, and then backed it down to the warm up weight and supersetted with another exercise (doing a long head of the tricep vs the short head of the tricep) with light warm up weight. After 4 sets of 25 reps supersetting, my Triceps were pumped. Wonder if they will be sore tomorrow?

Tomorrow is Back day, which can be grueling if I do alot of heavy lifting. It is also suppose to be warmer tomorrow. Wonder if it will be warm at 8AM for my jog? Going to have to scale back on the jog though if I want to make it thru a decent Back workout. Maybe just the 7 miles thru town on the Cultural Trail. I kind of want to see what the Canal Run might be, but when I looked over the bridge on my way to the gym in town, they had colored the water an emerald green. Freaked me out! It was so fake. Wonder if they did that for the tourists that are here for the Big Ten Tournament? Anyways, makes me not want to jog so close to it now. Plus the last time it was really nice, the canal had so many people walking, jogging, rollerblading, biking, strollers with babies, etc., that I would feel like I was at a mall during Black Friday (which I do not do, LOL).

Well, I am very tired tonight. I am getting to be such a morning person (up at 6 AM, study till 8 AM, and then go for a jog). I thought I would be out of place being a 50 year old at a university again, but being the one that is different is something I guess I am use to. I guess being a vegan kind of makes you comfortable to being the oddity. My life seems to revolve around exercising and studying, and I am fine with just that.

It is funny now that it is the morning. Last night I had cravings. I wanted to find vending machines and eat a bag of potato chips and a gooey chocolate bar with nuts (like Snickers or a Chocolate PayDay). I left at night thinking that there was one of those vile vending machine places around the apt complex, over by the mailboxes I thought. Nope. Then I even went looking thru my roommate's stuff (she is off to Florida for Spring Break with her parents). She had chocolate peanut butter ice cream from Haagen Daz. . . I just couldn't bring myself to stick that toxin in my body. That and it was pretty old, 2/3 3 eaten, and ring of ice on the surface. I ended up eating 4 pieces of Ezekiel bread with Veganaise (EarthBalance Original is all I can find here, and that messes up my lower ab too much, so I stay away from that too - I can eat tofu OK, so my thoughts that it was the actual soybeans was doing it is probably wrong - I can however eat EB's Soyfree butter-like spread).

The run yesterday morning was a breeze. My body knew right where to go, turned around, and before I knew it I was crossing West Michigan Street, and then sprinting the last 1/2 block to my apt. 2 hours and 15 minutes this time - shaved off 15 minutes somewhere. A little cold yet, but warmer than the 20 degrees from the day before.

Back workout went OK. I could not get the heavy weight set from the time before. This diet is starting to affect the weights I can lift again. That is OK. I knew this was coming, so I am mentally prepared to give up heavy weights to get ripped. Very mental thinking for me in this regards. I still thought I would give them a thrashing. If they can only lift medium, then medium sets for awhile, with descending sets - all the way down to the measy 5 lbs dumbell weight or just the bar on the Smith Press Rack, and make the muscles scream for oxygen! That and they pump up with blood and make them feel really SWOLE! LOL!

Next morning. Jogging stuff is going around in the dryer getting dry. I was so sure I wouldn't be able to run due to rain this morning, but it seems to be not here yet. I only have Biceps to do at the gym, but if it is raining, I can tell already that I will just stay inside and not head outside and walk all the way into town. Plus I found an article that I want to read and let the knowledge sink in and fit it into a working model in my head (I visualize the cartoon in my head of what is going on in the system/body). I know that the immune system appears to be involved in some way. Isn't it always? We know our developing concepts of inflammation/immune system about what we put in and on our bodies, and the resulting dis-ease to some of those chemicals. In fact I use it to my advantage. I have not been sick for over a decade now, and when I eat or use a new body product, I look to see if I have any adverse reaction to it. Then I know if it is healthy for me or not. Probably helped me last night in my intense cravings (need to buy some dark chocolate for tonight's episode - really dark, the one with 80 - 95% cacao, and little sugar!)

Today it is back down to the high 30's for my morning run. At least it is not raining like yesterday's run (which by the way was 2 1/2 hours long - thus it had to be around a half marathon mark in mileage). Things are not going the way I planned them to go, here in Indy/IUPUI. So I guess I take my frustrations out on the road and let the endorphins go wild. LOL. All I know is that I weighed myself when I got back and it was 138.8! under 140! I haven't been that low for over 10 years now. And the abs are just starting to come out, but the delts are starting to define themselves nicely.

Today my lower back is talking to me before I go out for the jog. I did do Back yesterday, so I must have done something right in pushing myself there. The Chest still hurts in the sternum area (working exclusively on getting my pec cleavage up to par), which was 3 days ago, but it hurt alot more yesterday. The diet has made snapping back/muscle repair slower than usual.

Today is jog, study, Biceps at the gym in town/walk, and starting a lab report. May be the boringiest Saturday to some of you, but to me it is what I like to do. Work out my body, and work out my brain.

Will input my frustrations later. The Lipo6 and Con-crete Creatine that I take in the morning before a run are starting to kick in. It is weird how I can feel the caffeine starting to up my energy, and the creatine doesn't kick in tiil I am on my way back (45 - 1 hour later). It is like all of a sudden I have this energy to "race" home! Then I just smile and say, ah, it is the creatine working. If it was the gluconeogenesis/beta oxidation of fatty acids from the adipocytes just starting to work would be awesome too! Use up those fat cells! The stubborn ones under the bootie and the lower abs!

Today was a warm day. I had a 9 AM lecture, so I took off at 6:45 AM and just jogged around the town of Indianapolis on the Cultural Heritage Trail (7 Mile lap around the town), with a pit stop at Marsh market to get power greens, grapefruit, pea pods, baby carrots, and dang heavy Rice Milk! But I crammed it all into my sport back pack, and just hugged the straps with my hands to pull it in close and not let it bounce on my back as I jogged. And enjoyed my green power smoothie for breakfast afterwards. Took off at 1 PM for the gym to do Biceps. It was a new page in the workout book for me to do Biceps. I like to switch up the exercises every 4th time doing the exercise (going up in weight for that particular exercise, and then back down when doing a new one). I went back to the EZ bar curl (instead of a wide bar cable curl), did Rope Hammer Cable Curls - while standing on the Bosu Ball! I was able to look in the mirror as I did them and saw the fullness of my Biceps as I did this Rope Hammer curl as I was pulling the rope up and trying not to let it come together at the end which is what it wanted to do. Also my elbows were so in close to my body as I curled up. Different angle for the bicep muscles to work at. I ended with the usual single "BI" cable curl on the track system. I did them slowly and contracted at the peak and held it for awhile before allowing it to go back down (as oppose to just "doing" it like I did before - work it alittle more). My arms were hurting as I finished up the last set. Good workout.

Oh yeah, after my workout I headed to the Market again for Ezekiel bread, brown rice, cans of beans, diced tomatoes, and frozen broccoli, I headed to The Flying Cupcake Bakery on Massachusetts Avenue for a vegan vanilla cupcake (actually bought 2 of them and yes I ate both of them tonight - mental note, do not say you are just going to eat one tonight and the other one is for tomorrow - wrong! Not when they are that good!). They only have one vegan flavor a day at that location. But at their Raw Bakery location I could have a vast array to choose from!

Saw that if I go just 2 more miles I could go to the Raw Bakery one on Illinois Street (7 1/2 miles away - 15 mile total - Mmm, is it worth it? Of course I can not jog home with cupcakes. I will have to eat them there! Cupcakes in the morning - for breakfast? Oops, they don't open till 10 AM. I am usually home by then as I take off early LOL!).

Yesterday was awesome. I wanted to go to the vegan bakery that had a big selection of vegan (and gluten-free) cupcakes, so my morning run consisted to running the 6.5 miles to get there. Picking out 3 jumbo cupcakes and one small apple pie to eat right there! They have done a good job of mixing up the gluten-free flours that I personally know of - but could still feel the texture of the rice flour. I also bought a cute tshirt, and had the rest put into a pretty pink box and put into a long white bag. And yeap, I jogged back along the trail 6.5 miles back with a bag on one arm, and kept switching arms on the way back. It was hilarious along this one stretch of the trail where there is a golf course on the other side and the wind always blows really strong there. I did my best to keep the cupcakes from getting too jostled! And I spent the whole day eating those 3 cupcakes: Happy Birthday Chocolate, Lemon with blueberry, and an almond flavored one called "Ball and Chain". After eating them (all delicious for being vegan and gluten-free!), I have an idea of a cupcake that has layers. With a cupcake you have this big mound of cake, and a big mound of frosting on the top. Even with carefully placement of a bite, you either get a big chunk of cake or frosting, but it tastes the best when you have them intertwined and the tongue can feel the smoothness of frosting mixed in with the rough texture of cake. Going to have to think of an easy way to layer (not taking a cupcake and cutting it into layers and frosting between each). Wonder if the cheesecake recipe can be layered in with the cake , and baked all together. It should add a layer of smoothness amongst the cakeAnyways, the 13 miles yesterday made me really sore in the legs all day. Did not go to the gym because of that. Had 2 protein shakes thru out the day to help with recovery. Seems to have worked as it is the next day, and I am off to go for a short 7 mile jog this morning. I am going to take the Market route into town, and get power greens, bananas, and peanut butter for today's eating meals.Good morning so far. I like to heat up some water (no tea -stains the teeth and I do not need any medicinal help this morning), drink it, and within 10 minutes or so, I can empty my colon. Now I can jog light as a feather! LOL! Have to see how cold it is - Spring is weird in Indy. It is for the most part warm during the day, but at dawn when I like to jog it is usually 40 to 50 at the beginning, and then sometimes hot after an hour or so of jogging - that is why I wear layers while I jog. Off I go!

I had an easy jog this morning. I stopped at the market and got my power greens, bananas, peanut butter, and annie's green godess. I studied for awhile, and after having a green smoothie (banana, protein powder, rice milk, and power greens blended up in a Vitamix), studied some more (one more exam to go). For lunch I had the usual: 2 vegan morningstar roasted garlic quinoa burger, frozen broccoli, brown rice, and pasta sauce - all heated up in the microwave. It has been an hour, so now I am off to go to the gym. Workout today is centered on delts, with some legs perhaps put in. I am toying around with the idea of doing 2 bodyparts per workout, and more on not pushing the weights so much, but using and maturing the muscle that I do have (making it look pretty instead of bulky).

Snuck out early because today is the mini Indy marathon, and it goes around the campus for abit. I was able to do my usual 10+ mile jog along the White River Greenway and back before the first runners get close to campus. Nice day for a massive 30,000+ runners/walkers - plenty of sunshine and just a little bit cool at 50 degrees something Fahrenheit. Just got done having my green smoothie, shower up, and then I will try to study for my last exam while there is so much music blasting outside, not to mention the helicopter coverage for this thing as they are hovering right outside the apartments. Wonder how many people will be in the city when I go to the gym today? I was going to say how nice it is that the city will be filled with runners, but this is Indy! I see runners at all hours, and if it isn't a runner, then it is a cyclist! Definitely an exercise loving city! And with a vegan bakery, several vegan option restaurants, and several vegan/vegetarian societies, it is a decent place for a vegan.

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